Police Helicopter Crashes into Scotland Pub, At Least 8 Dead

Martin Grimes/Getty Images(GLASGOW, Scotland) — A police helicopter with three on board came down on top of a pub filled with a Friday evening crowd in Glasgow, Scotland.

Scotland police say at least eight people are dead; three were killed in the helicopter and five were killed in the pub.

Two police officers and a civilian pilot were on board the helicopter, a Eurocopter EC135 T2, when it came down on the roof of a pub in Stockwell St at 10:25pm local time. The police chopper was heard to splutter before it crashed.

According to ABC’s Linda Albin in London, people were shocked by what they’d seen, but rushed to help the wounded. Witnesses said the helicopter fell out of the sky like a stone, embedding itself in the roof of the popular Glasgow pub.

Emergency services arrived at the scene within minutes, but before that, Glaswegians had formed a human chain to help bring the injured out.

More than 30 people were taken to hospitals and 14 people remain hospitalized in “very serious” condition, police said.

Victoria Simpson, who rushed to the scene after hearing the crash, said “Because of the responses from the emergency services, if they hadn’t been on the scene as quickly as they had been it’d been so much worse.”

Local ska band Esperanza was playing a free show at the pub and the band members eventually escaped, according to the band’s Facebook page.

“Thanks for all the messages,” it read. “It seems that the band are all OK. Not so sure about everyone else.”